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Reduce Anxiety Now

Anxiety can feel like it’s ruining your life but there’s some simple steps you can take right now to bring those anxiety levels right down.

A Deep Breath

Place one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. Take a nice big deep breath right now.If your hand moves more on your chest than your stomach then you are shallow breathing which only puts more pressure on an already stressed nervous system.

Seems obvious but plenty of people don’t really understand that caffeine adds a lot of pressure to a stressed out nervous system. I even get clients turn up to sessions sipping energy drinks like Red Bull not linking their anxiety with their caffeine fixes.

Get Outside

Your brain can feel over stimulated from 21st century pressures of work, screen time, the people around you and your environment.It does need a break and some space to just relax even if it’s for a few minutes, the longer the better.If you are lucky to live near the countryside or sea then that’s even better as those environments stimulate the mind less giving it a break.Learning to manage the guilt of taking breaks is also vital for this to work.

Exercise

The power of this cannot be underestimated. The tricky part is not letting tiredness and feeling demotivated to trick you into just laying on the couch reaching for the remote.The chemical changes in the brain from exercising alone make this worth while with some studies pointing out it can be better than medication. It also helps the brain become more adaptable to stress and burns off the adrenaline that can come from 21st century pressures.

Mind Management

It’s the thought process which can drive people to feel like they are going mad. Thoughts can be intrusive, repetitive and be the catalyst for out of context flight or fight responses which feel out of control. Getting a hold on this is vital for reducing and being in control anxiety. You can learn some of these from an app like Headspace, mindfulness or meditation courses and I teach a more streamlined version for clients as to be honest some courses add so much filler that it’s easy to lose interest and get bored.